Good morning! 🎆 It’s Sunday, and it’s Independence Day here in the United States. Before the fireworks, we’re going to the mid-1950s, when the American composer Carlisle Floyd premiered his most well-known work: Susannah. We shared another aria from this opera
I was thrilled to revisit "Susannah", which I encountered for the first time in these pages. I had never heard of Carlisle Floyd, and I savor the links I uncovered in his biography to my personal history as a daughter of a couple of escapees from Florida. Rather than discuss the music, the uniquely American character and southern folk roots of the opera, I set off to read this week about the composer himself.Â
Often called "The Father of American Opera," Floyd is now 95 years old. His latest work was nominated in 2020 for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-local-news/2020-12-07/carlisle-floyds-final-opera-competing-for-a-grammy. "Prince of Players" is performed by Williams Boggs, Kate Royal, Keith Phares, the Florentine Opera Chorus and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.Â
Another surprise was learning that he wrote the libretto for the film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel "All The King's Men" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216534). Robert Penn Warren's "Band of Angels", is another favorite novel of mine about the American South, which was made into a now classic movie starring Clark Gable (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050166/).Â
Carlisle Floyd's biography offers more leads to his body of work [Carlisle Floyd: Biography (boosey.com)] for anyone who cares to join me in further explorations of his music. Â
I also list a reference to The Book of Susannah (one of the Deuterocanonical books in The Catholic Bible), on which Floyd's most famous opera is loosely based [The Book of Susannah – What is it? (compellingtruth.org)]
Could my post-pandemic future lie in making opera mixtapes, similar to the dance music tapes I used to create years ago? Say, entrepreneur, do you think there's a market for that? Especially among young listeners? (https://https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Mixtape#Making-a-Modern-Digital-Mixtape)Â
I found the music of "Flower and Hawk" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_and_Hawk), Floyd's seventh opera (1972), to be rather heavy and tedious, I suppose in keeping with its theme. It's redeeming virtue, though, is that the opera led me to the fascinating history of Eleanor of Aquitaine. According to one synopsis (https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails?musicID=33519), the opera's title derives from the royal seal of this extraordinary queen, where she stands with a hawk in one hand and a flower in the other. This makes sense in light of the version I read of her action-packed life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine).
I do wonder why Floyd chose the story of her 15-year imprisonment by her husband Henry II, over all the dramatic episodes he might otherwise have selected from her story. After all, Eleanor of Aquitaine ruled France and England, led a Crusade, married twice, was the mother of eight children (three of whom became kings), was skilled at church and state politics, and was rich and beautiful to boot.Â
Carlisle Floyd was somehow inspired to portray Eleanor of Aquitaine as weak, vulnerable and almost suicidal during the years she was imprisoned after failing to seize her husband's throne for her son. Carlisle Floyd will neither know, nor would he care, how much this sexist, patriarchal portrayal of "the greatest woman of the Middle Ages" p*ssed me off, but now you do!ðŸ˜
I thought I might feel better about "Prince of Players", premiered by the Houston Opera in 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?)v=WwoviFpOyU8). After viewing an excerpt from Act 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v2UVBHZdMA), this opera ain't lookin' too promising either. I won't dismiss these works by Carlisle Floyd, the "Father of American Opera", without further study. I admit, though, that I am ready to run back to the classical composers, and the operas which have stood the test of time.😌
I was thrilled to revisit "Susannah", which I encountered for the first time in these pages. I had never heard of Carlisle Floyd, and I savor the links I uncovered in his biography to my personal history as a daughter of a couple of escapees from Florida. Rather than discuss the music, the uniquely American character and southern folk roots of the opera, I set off to read this week about the composer himself.Â
Often called "The Father of American Opera," Floyd is now 95 years old. His latest work was nominated in 2020 for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-local-news/2020-12-07/carlisle-floyds-final-opera-competing-for-a-grammy. "Prince of Players" is performed by Williams Boggs, Kate Royal, Keith Phares, the Florentine Opera Chorus and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.Â
Another surprise was learning that he wrote the libretto for the film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel "All The King's Men" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216534). Robert Penn Warren's "Band of Angels", is another favorite novel of mine about the American South, which was made into a now classic movie starring Clark Gable (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050166/).Â
Carlisle Floyd's biography offers more leads to his body of work [Carlisle Floyd: Biography (boosey.com)] for anyone who cares to join me in further explorations of his music. Â
I also list a reference to The Book of Susannah (one of the Deuterocanonical books in The Catholic Bible), on which Floyd's most famous opera is loosely based [The Book of Susannah – What is it? (compellingtruth.org)]
Happy reading and listening!🎵🎶🎵
Carlisle Floyd wouldn't let me get away with just reading about his illustrious life, so I decided late tonight to return to his music. I love Renée Fleming's interpretation of "The Trees On the Mountain" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdN1VH6J6u0). Now I can add to that her "Ain't It A Pretty Night", both lyrics and music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTRAaziIJno). When I inadvertently played the latter aria on two separate YouTube channels, with a delayed start for one, the result was Renée Fleming's lovely voice, and the lush orchestrations of Floyd's music, weaving in and out of, and overlapping each other, as in a round. I liked what I heard so much that I intentionally played, in the same fashion, "I Have Dreamt In My Life Dreams", from Floyd's opera "Wuthering Heights" (1958). This time I went with the voices of Renée Fleming (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbqt0NwUaXA) and Kate Royal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOMWYswMVW8). Mixing their performances up like this was, yes,"music to my ears"!
Could my post-pandemic future lie in making opera mixtapes, similar to the dance music tapes I used to create years ago? Say, entrepreneur, do you think there's a market for that? Especially among young listeners? (https://https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Mixtape#Making-a-Modern-Digital-Mixtape)Â
I found the music of "Flower and Hawk" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_and_Hawk), Floyd's seventh opera (1972), to be rather heavy and tedious, I suppose in keeping with its theme. It's redeeming virtue, though, is that the opera led me to the fascinating history of Eleanor of Aquitaine. According to one synopsis (https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails?musicID=33519), the opera's title derives from the royal seal of this extraordinary queen, where she stands with a hawk in one hand and a flower in the other. This makes sense in light of the version I read of her action-packed life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine).
I do wonder why Floyd chose the story of her 15-year imprisonment by her husband Henry II, over all the dramatic episodes he might otherwise have selected from her story. After all, Eleanor of Aquitaine ruled France and England, led a Crusade, married twice, was the mother of eight children (three of whom became kings), was skilled at church and state politics, and was rich and beautiful to boot.Â
Carlisle Floyd was somehow inspired to portray Eleanor of Aquitaine as weak, vulnerable and almost suicidal during the years she was imprisoned after failing to seize her husband's throne for her son. Carlisle Floyd will neither know, nor would he care, how much this sexist, patriarchal portrayal of "the greatest woman of the Middle Ages" p*ssed me off, but now you do!ðŸ˜
At any rate, for anyone interested, here's the boring music of "Flower and Hawk"🥱: (Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhcUDNVjTTE) (Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7nELUBemf8)(Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDYaVr6zAE).
I thought I might feel better about "Prince of Players", premiered by the Houston Opera in 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?)v=WwoviFpOyU8). After viewing an excerpt from Act 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v2UVBHZdMA), this opera ain't lookin' too promising either. I won't dismiss these works by Carlisle Floyd, the "Father of American Opera", without further study. I admit, though, that I am ready to run back to the classical composers, and the operas which have stood the test of time.😌
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